As a musician, sometimes you get high. Sometimes your name is Al. And sometimes you listen to one of your early albums—only to find yourself holding a new version of it with a cover featuring a squirrel with a raging boner.
Read moreMessa – The Spin Review
The cruel, ever advancing passage of time spares no one. Three years, and a few mental breakdowns and depressive episodes later, Scuttlegoat finds himself confronted with The Spin. Will it make him turn 360 degrees around and walk away?
Read moreThe Infernal Deceit – The True Harmful Black Review
If there is one period and sound in metal history that gets Anti-Peat going like a small kid in a sweet shop, it’s 1990s Sweden. But can you get too much of a good thing? Join Anti-Peat as he tries to eat some German cuisine consisting of salty Swedish fish with a side of meatballs.
Read moreHirax – Faster Than Death Review
When bears don’t mosh, they rummage through some thrash. Will the return of Hirax induce some bear-fisted action, or will they leave Bobo hanging in the trash pit?
Read moreLord Agheros – Anhedonia Review
Anhedonia clearly stretches the black metal genre tag a very long way. Yes, you can hear practices inherited from black metal bands in Lord Agheros’ work, but they’re all quite divorced from the traditional framework. Yet without using that genre tag, without expressing a desire to belong to that movement, I’d have maybe missed this and that’d have been a shame.
Read morePutred – Megalit Al Putrefacției Review
You see, Putred’s very name suggests all the adjectives I’ll be wanting for their brand of death metal. Words like filthy, nasty, foul, and gruesome. Let’s decompose.
Read moreMutagenic Host – The Diseased Machine Review
It’s a brand new year. The sun’s shining, birds are chirping, and – wait, what’s that smell? A new pile of stinky hardcore-infused death metal, of course. Mutagenic Host, after releasing one demo, lurch back onto the scene nearly five years later with their debut full length The Diseased Machine. So, are your playlists ready to fire this machine up and see what spits out?
Read moreThe Halo Effect – March of the Unheard Review
Stretching beyond melodeath’s greatest works is a long tail of releases that are banal, toothless, or some combination thereof. In theory, The Halo Effect’s roster of In Flames alumni fronted by Dark Tranquillity’s Mikael Stanne is great news for people hoping for more gems. But if you can hear their riffs from a mile away, how can their march be so silent?
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